Lissa6 wrote:
Heya,
Well what I was told, for question 1 - you have 6 months to apply for the long term residence card, if you have a job or can prove self sufficient then that is great you don't have to much of a time crunch. I need to find a job and work for 3 months then apply (what the company I am using has said) with bank statements, payslips etc. If you don't have this time crunch then you don't have to worry so much about utilising the full "6 months". We put the 29th Jan and only left on the 5th March. So you can go anytime after getting your family permit.
That website... I sat for ages with difficulties... eventually I opened up an outlook email address, (I was trying to use google and it wouldn't register me) and it worked. It however didn't tell me there was a problem with my email address, just that it wasn't valid and the form wasn't complete. Just to make sure this isn't any sort of problem.
Cheers Lisa! The site is still down at the minute, so I keep keep trying and see where I get. My wife is in her current job until June 3rd - so we will be going sometime after that date and before the referendum on June 23rd. So I will probably just put June 1st as my estimated travel date.
I am currently trying to get some work sorted to help with the residence card application. I was hoping to get my residence card application in before the referendum - so in that case, I may have to apply as "self-sufficient", due to the short time scale between when I arrive back and when the vote happens.
I am thinking of ordering a TV license for my wife, so that she can then use that to open a bank account etc - to help with the residence card application too. I wouldn't be bothered too much about it now if the vote wasn't happening.
In terms of self-sufficient and applying for the residence card, I emailed the Grow your Europe advice page (
http://europa.eu/youreurope/advice/enquiry_en.htm) - thanks chaoclive for that btw! and they told me the following:
Your wife can apply on the basis of you being a self-sufficient person. This requires you to demonstrate you have adequate financial resources to support yourself and you are while living in the UK so that neither of you become an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system of that country AND you both have health insurance cover in place. Please note that the UK does not recognise NHS cover as being sufficient for this purpose – you would need to have arranged private health insurance if you did not work
There is no fixed minimum amount. However, if you can demonstrate that you have sufficient savings in excess of £114 per week (the threshold below which a couple over the age of 18 may claim benefits in the UK), this should suffice to show you have sufficient resources. You would need to submit bank statements to show your savings that are as recent as possible and no older than three months. You also need to identify whether you have any other income.
As I do not have a job secured yet (working on it!)- I may apply for the residence card as self-sufficient - and if I have a job secured in a school for August/September, I will also send a letter from the employer along with my RC application, to show that I am self-sufficient now, but have a job in the pipeline. All the while making sure that I have CSI for periods that I am not working. If that makes sense!!
Anyway, I have to get the family permit and actually get to Northern Ireland, before worrying about that application! haha! Jumping a few steps ahead of myself, but thought you might want to see what that website told me - and if you have any questions you should email them via their website. They were really helpful and gave detailed responses.
PS the visa4uk website is still down haha
if your family permit application goes anything like mine its all straightforward and just a matter of rubber stamping it.
